Walter E. Baethgen is the Director of the Program for Latin America and the Caribbean in the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI - The Earth Institute, Columbia University). In the IRI he has been establishing regional research programs that aim to improve climate risk assessment and risk management in the agricultural, health, water resources and disasters sectors. Before joining the IRI Baethgen was a Senior Scientist in the Research and Development Division of IFDC (International Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development Center) where he worked mainly in Information and Decision Support Systems for the Agricultural Sector (1987-2003). During 1989-90, he acted as a consultant for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in Colonia, Uruguay. Since 1990 (first with IFDC and now with the IRI) he has been establishing and coordinating regional research programs in Latin America in collaboration with National and International organizations.
Dr Baethgen has acted as a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the United Nations (UNDP, UNIDO), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the World Bank and the Inter-American Institute for Agricultural Science (IICA). He participated as Principal Investigator in several NOAA and NASA International research programs. He also acted as consultant for the governments of Brazil, Paraguay, Guatemala and Uruguay, and for the private sector in Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela. He was a lead author for IPCC's Second (1995) and Third (2001) Assessments Reports and contributing author for the Fourth Assessment, as well as the review editor for IPCC's special issue on Technology Transfer (2000).
He is or was a member of scientific advisory committees of several International organizations including the CGIAR (Science Council's Standing Panel on Mobilizing Science), IAI (Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research), CIIFEN (Centro Internacional para la Investigacion del Fenomeno de El Nino), IGBP, NSF, and WMO. He has also served as reviewer of several International research programs (IAI, NOAA, NASA, German government, Norwegian Government) and he is currently an Editorial Board Member, of the peer-reviewed journal Agricultural Systems published by Elsevier Science.
He acted as a member of the advisory committees of the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI) and of CLIMAG (Research Program for Climate Forecasts Applications in Agriculture, World Meteorological Organization). He was also a member of an Expert Team of Open Program Area Group (OPAG, WMO): "Developing Guidance on Climate Watches". He was also a steering committee member during the establishment of the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI).
Baethgen obtained his PhD and M.Sc. degrees in Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He has over 80 publications to his credit.
